Summer Plans?

Y'kno what guys?

I'm thinking to myself that there must be a lot of "How to spend your summer" ideas between all of us here. Why don't we share a couple? I'm dying to know all the cool and varied ways we all spend our summers:

For me:

I'm doing an NSERC funded research project with Dr. Beh at SFU. I'm hoping to confirm that a functional residue he found in a protein is functionally conserved across all members of that protein family. Once I do that, I then hope to elaborate on the function of this protein outside of yeasts (our lab's model organism) by introducing this same mutation in the protein homologs of other organisms (esp. mammalian neurons and worm ciliogenesis).

In my off time I do a little bit of martial arts (Pa Kua Chang, AKA Baguazhang. I also like practicing what little xingyiquan I know) as well as dabbling in writing (the personal essay is a very self-enlightening genre). I'm also trying to get through my summer reading list for the Undergraduate Semester in Dialogue program I've enrolled in for the Fall. The semester in dialogue is an innovative program at SFU where, for one semester, we belong to a small group of 20 students chosen across all disciplines to examine a current topic for that semester (e.g. Fall semester is the Canadian Health Care system). We will be taught dialogue/negotiation/social skills so that we can be equipped to go into the field, interview important players in the field, write opinion pieces for local papers, and participate in an upcoming health conference amongst other things. It's more of a policy-oriented program, and promises to be a spectacular experience. 'Course, it means getting through the reading list :p

What about other people? I'm sure there are spectacular stories out there!

Summer school... Acturial Science and Macroeconomics, both business based.
Staying alive in this too quiet place of London.
Partying hard, studying not as much but good amount.
Prepare for nationals.
Look for volunteer opportunities as time allows.
Land a part-time, preferably night shift, job.

So this is what a general, lazy, not overachieving but not underachieving person, who is a bit short of living expense budget, does, I guess?

You're in LONDON????

Oh wait, do you mean London, Ontario? For a moment I was so excited for you if you were in London, England. Haha, it's a cool dichotomy to be studying actuarial sciences by day and partying by night. Totally Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde moment.

What national competition are you preparing for? To compete at the national level is amazing stuff!

Ummm. Go to school. Quite spectacular indeed.

What courses are you taking at school? I think you're in communications right? Some of those courses are actually pretty interesting with titles like "Introduction to Journalism", "Applied communication for social issues", and "Public opinion, propaganda, and political communication." I never knew such courses existed in the first place.

Heh, once again doing some computing science courses, mix in some business stuff here and there. Working part time at a computer store.

Life's good!

For me, it's taking Health Psych over the internet (I'm sooo behind! Online courses are so hard to keep up with) and managing/acting as receptionist at a nail salon in Kerrisdale. Pretty boring actually. No big trips planned this year!

For those working, are you doing full time or part time? I just ended up doing part time because my job is so far from home, plus I want some time to enjoy myself (which has ended up being me bumming around on the couch!). I'm hoping to get back into photography and playing guitar....but so far that hasn't happened!

ooh, tough, i had to take an online course while working last term. wasn't pretty at all.

i'm doing full time coop in indiana at the university of notre dame.

here's a brief blurb.

within the blood stream there's a coagulation system, with three main pathways involved: 1) coagulation pathway that leads to clots 2) fibrinolytic pathway that dissolves the clot 3) anti-coagulation pathway that prevents the clot from forming. within the anti-coagulation pathway there's a protein called protein C.

it turns out that Protein C is important also in preventing an inflammation, and that when humans are infected with bacteria, protein C levels goes down, more clots form, and the humans die because the blood vessels get all blocked up by the clots. someone in the 80's gave a dose of protein C to the patients and it successfully allowed the patients to live.

my boss made a strain of mice with very low levels of protein C, and it turned out that if we gave them bacterial infection, they died really quickly. no big surprise there. but it also turned out that if we give these mice estrogen (female hormone) a week before we give them the bacterial infection, these mice also survived a lot better. and this is my coop term's summary: looking at the effect of estrogen on prolonging the survival of mice.

How fantastic you're all doing so.. greatly. I'm working and I'll carry on working... summer plans don't exactly happen since I haven't had "summer" since I graduated. It's a 12 month year we don't take breaks from working heh. Oh.. this is the best plan I have: In august I'm being flown up to vernon by my company for my level 2 clerical training.. woooo pay raise! Good stuff.